Dundee Precious Metals Tsumeb (Pty) Limited

The Company is committed to creating shareholder value in a safe and socially responsible manner through a disciplined but opportunistic business model and to maintaining strong financials at all times. Maximizing the value of our existing operating assets through exploration, development and optimizing their operational output is a key component of our strategy. To that end, DPM has assembled and continues to grow a pipeline of mining and processing projects at various stages of development that will ultimately serve to fuel further growth.

Dundee Precious Metals Tsumeb (Pty) Limited, is located in Tsumeb, Namibia approximately 430 km north of the capital city of Windhoek. Tsumeb is the closest town to the Etosha National Park and has a population of 14,000 people. The smelter was constructed in the early 1960’s to process concentrate from the Tsumeb copper mine and other mines in the country. It is linked by rail to the Atlantic port of Walvis Bay in Namibia. The facility consists of one Ausmelt TSL furnace, two Peirce Smith Converters, a sulphuric acid plant, a slag milling and flotation plant and an arsenic trioxide production plant. The smelter employs approximately 700 people.

The smelter is one of only a few in the world which is able to treat complex copper concentrates that contain arsenic and is therefore able to conclude long term favourable contracts to treat such concentrates. Blister copper, sulphuric acid and arsenic trioxide are smelter products. The blister copper is delivered to refineries in Europe and Asia for final processing to copper metal and the arsenic trioxide is sold to third party customers worldwide for wood treatment and pesticide chemicals production. Concentrates Sulphuric acid is sold to Namibian Customers in the Uranium and Copper production businesses.

The Tsumeb smelter produces a 98.5% pure copper blister, and with its ability to treat complex copper concentrates is transitioning from a captive smelter, receiving mainly DPM concentrates, to a toll treatment facility with brown-fields expansion potential.

In March 2010 we completed the acquisition of Namibia Custom Smelters (Pty) Ltd, a metals processing and smelting operation from Weatherly International plc. As part of the agreement to purchase NCS, Dundee Precious Metals has been provided with an indemnification with respect to specific matters, such as any environmental and license breaches or breaches of law that may exist up to the date of completion of the acquisition 24 March 2010. 

Louis Dreyfus Commodities Metals Suisse SA has exclusive rights to purchase the Chelopech copper concentrate for toll processing through the smelter and an exclusive arrangement to supply further concentrate feed for toll processing at the smelter through to and including 2020. The arsenic trioxide and acid production are sold to third party customers by DPM.